By Ellie Muir

Copyright independent

Cillian Murphy has said he is nothing like his Peaky Blinders character Tommy Shelby, joking that he’s not a “psychopathic gangster”.

The Irish actor, 49, said in a new interview that it has been a gift and a privilege to play the character for more than a quarter of his life.

The gangster drama, which starred Murphy as violent patriarch Tommy Shelby, came to an end in 2022 after six seasons and will wrap up with a follow-up Netflix film, The Immortal Man, as opposed to a seventh series.

The film, written by the show’s creator Steven Knight, will see Murphy’s character come up against Nazis during the Second World War in the period where Britain stood alone against Germany and its allies before the US joined the fight. Production for the film wrapped in December 2024, and a release date is yet to be confirmed.

Teasing the Peaky Blinders film, Murphy told the BBC: “I think it’s better to keep it under wraps, keep it a surprise.”

Murphy added that playing Tommy Shelby has been a “defining” role for him, adding: “To grow older with a character, you don’t really get to do that, and that is the joy of long-form television.”

“We never anticipated that the TV show would have that impact, would be so adored and have that longevity. It is defining.”

The actor credited the series’ success down to “magic formula”, saying: “Mostly the writing, I think, but also it was a moment in time.”

He added: “The beauty of that show is that I have gone off and done other things in the meantime and played lots of other characters.”

Since the original series concluded in 2022, Murphy starred in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar, as well as Small Things Like These and provided his voice for the animation adaptation of Kensuke’s Kingdom.

Murphy is also promoting his new film, Steve, which follows his titular character, a head teacher of a boys’ reform school in 1996, and his attempts to turn around the lives of the students, alongside dealing with his own mental health problems.

The actor described the film as a love letter to teachers, as they are “custodians of next generation”.

The film – dealing with themes of men’s mental health and youth violence – chronicles a single day at the school when a film crew visits to record a documentary, there’s a visit from a local MP and both Steve (Murphy) and a pupil named Shy (Jay Lycurgo), receive bad news.

Murphy said that early viewers of the film have seen it “through the prism of their own life experience”.

He added that even though the film is set three decades ago, “It is just demonstrating that this stuff is always there”.

Steve is in cinemas now and will be released on Netflix next month.